


Tom and Harry

by LittleUggie



Series: Evil Author Day [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Evil Author Day, M/M, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:40:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22747219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleUggie/pseuds/LittleUggie
Summary: Harry grows up with Tom at Wool's Orphanage
Relationships: Harry Potter/Tom Riddle
Series: Evil Author Day [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1635586
Kudos: 58





	Tom and Harry

In the east end of London, between a church and a row of tenement houses that had never heard of better days, much less seen them, is Wool’s orphanage. It may have possibly at one time been a school or perhaps had been intended to be a poorhouse run by the church. A rather unnecessary thought considering the current economic state of those who lived in this part of the city. Whatever it had or might have been, now it was an orphanage. A place where lost or unwanted souls wound up and were sheltered and raised in the narrowest sense of the terms. It was more or less run by Mrs. Cole. Where Mr. Cole was or if he had ever even existed was a mystery to the other inhabitants of the Orphanage, but speculation ran wild. Not in her hearing of course. She could be wicked with a switch if provoked. Though she wasn’t a bad woman, and in her own way cared for her charges, she just carried an air of being permanently exhausted and beaten down by life. The gin bottles she hid in her office both treated and exacerbated her condition. 

So the younger inhabitants of the Orphanage mostly ended up looking after themselves. Oh there were minders for the youngest children, mostly older orphans and a few do gooder volunteers, but the rest of the children quickly learned to fend for themselves. As is wont to happen in circumstances such as this, a strict hierarchy developed. There were those who drew together to enforce this order, who picked out traits and labelled them ‘other’ and ‘wrong’ and used them as excuses to ostracise and bully. However, one of the unspoken rules of the social order that everyone, even the adults, followed was the longer one had lived at the orphanage, the higher up the hierarchy one was. 

As it happened there was one boy who had lived his entire life in the orphanage. He had, in fact, been born there. Though even without this status signifier, he would have found his way to the top of the heap. He was clever, extraordinarily clever. He drank knowledge like water and was constantly thirsty. More than that, he knew how to wield knowledge like a weapon, and he used that to defend his spot as the one everyone else deferred to. Those that attempted to cross him were quickly dealt with. His name is Tom. 

Now while Tom is generally respected (and feared), he is not well liked. Even the orphanage’s biggest bullies had a follower or two who sat with them at meals in a symbiotic relationship of protection for friendship (or at least company). The adults liked Tom because he was quiet and polite and did not run around yelling or making a mess like some of the other boys. But even they were not completely comfortable with Tom. There was something...odd about him. 

That was not to say that Tom was friendless. Tom had one friend, and in his opinion that was all he really needed. Another boy, his own age who had been brought to the orphanage by his uncle when he was scarcely two years old. His name is Harry. 

When Harry had been dropped off, the two boys were the youngest residents of the orphanage, and essentially grew up together. Neither had any firm recollection of life without the other. Other orphans came and went, but they were constant. 

Harry was not quite as clever as Tom, but he was curious and sneaky. He was good at hiding and very fast. He had a talent for going about unnoticed. This meant he always knew everything that was going on in the orphanage, though no one but Tom knew this. This was because Harry, too, was a bit odd. That’s how others spoke about them, in not quite so hushed tones. ‘Those odd boys’. One was rarely seen without the other. They shared a room, sat together at meals, and had a claimed corner of the play yard that no other child would dare go near despite the fact it was under the best shade tree. 

They would sit, heads bent toward each other, whispering. If anyone happened to overhear they may have been surprised and disturbed to realize that they could not understand the strange hissing words the boys uttered.


End file.
